At the tender age of 25, well before his work with the Auto Union Type C, Ferdinand Porsche entered the 1900 Paris World Exhibition with his all-electric car after developing the key systems for Jacob Lohner & Company. It was heralded as the "most innovative invention" of the show and consequently orders were filled for 300 of the cars. With 1800 lbs of lead-acid batteries, it's quite amazing the cars would routinely achieve a staggering for the time top speed of 31 mph. Since the motors were an in-wheel system, there was really no problem to include a second set in the back for the purposes of racing.

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With Ferdinand at the wheel, the four motor car was a race winner and reached speeds of 37 mph. He would go on to add an on-board generator to another car to provide unlimited range and also predate the Chevy Volt by about 100 years. [CNNMoney] [Porsche]